Now, we feel the time is right to make another important investment in our creators. That’s why we’ve decided to fund new content from some of our top creators, helping them not only fulfill their creative ambitions but also deliver new material to their millions of fans on YouTube.

This funding drive may be a tacit admission that YouTube creators can’t make quite enough to sustain their work through the existing ad revenue sharing model, which only gives creators about 45 percent of the revenue. By investing directly, YouTube is redistributing some of its profits back into the service.

In addition to redistributing profits back to its creators, investing in content deals directly could help YouTube hold onto its best talent. The investments are in the range of “single-digit millions” for a 10-part series, an anonymous source told Recode. If that’s the kind of money the company is willing to spend on its content creators, it could be more than enough to keep talented creators from straying too far.